


Letting Go

by Savageseraph



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Anger, Angst, Betrayal, Gen, Imprisonment, Loss, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-19
Updated: 2012-07-19
Packaged: 2017-11-10 10:51:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savageseraph/pseuds/Savageseraph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Freeing Belle meant letting go of that hope. Maybe forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Letting Go

_You don’t have it in you._

Jefferson’s hands curled into fists. He wasn’t sure if he hated Regina more for being right about his threats to harm her or himself for not being able to strike her down. Jefferson wasn’t an angel. He’d thought about ending Regina many times because of what she’d done to him and Grace. Every time, it was Grace who stopped him. He’d dream about sitting down to tea with his little girl and her screaming at his bloody hands that wouldn’t come clean no matter how much he scrubbed them. The ache of her loss paled alongside the pain of her recoiling from him in fear.

The disheveled woman with the haunted eyes reminds Jefferson that Regina hurt many people besides him. If he were a better man, a less selfish man, he would have freed her from her captivity before today. Before Regina betrayed him. Again. He supposes that as long as Belle was confined, he had some hope that Regina would help him find his way home. Freeing Belle meant letting go of that hope. Maybe forever.

 _Go to Mr. Gold. Tell him Regina locked you up. He’ll protect you._ Belle didn’t understand him, but she did flee. If she was lucky, she would find Gold before Regina found her.

Jefferson smiled. Regina might not worry about betraying him. Betraying Gold was another matter entirely. Still, Regina was right about one thing. He didn’t have it in him to let hate make him like her.


End file.
